I got an e-mail the other day from a cat I met at the SESAC songwriter’s bootcamp a few months back. So as it stands that was a very productive one day event. Met some really cool people. Got some very good contacts. And found at least four writing partners. Which brings me back to the e-mail from the other day. One of the people I met was Sean Smith. Which is kinda funny to me as I grew up skiing with a Sean Smith. This Sean Smith also skis, but it’s not the same Sean Smith. Wacky.
Sean is a writer/performer out of Nashville. Fun guy to talk to. Very easy going. He remembered me and looked me up being that he was going to be in town this week and asked if we could do some writing. I was like sure thing!
Today was that day. After the usual song and dance of getting to know a bit more about the person you’re about to embark on a musical journey with we got to thinking about song ideas. Sean spotted a baseball cap sitting on my studio couch and liked the phrase on it. He thought it would make a great title. I agreed and off we went on a title that ended up having a cool double meaning. We got thru a first verse and into a prechorus and chorus.
Good images were popping up but I started to feel like we were getting away from the idea we had started on. Not always a bad thing, but I felt the song was taking on too serious a tone and went from double entendre country pop thing to an old school country Merle Haggard type thing. I took a quick break and came back to sit and think about some of the direction we had and thought it would be easier to work the chorus words again but thinking more in terms of the title. I cobbled something together and read it back and Sean instantly came back with a minor change and bingo the chorus was done. It got the title in the hook, and the meaning more solid, along with making it easy to remember.
We had to cut the session off and now we’ll be finishing the lyrics via e-mail over the next week or so as he goes back to Nashville. He’s due back before too long so that we can cut a guitar/vocal demo of it and he’s got some places to plug it for the artists we had in mind. Cool beans.
Because of the whole writing a Nashville type thing came up today, I needed to branch off on the country wagon today with Single of the Day. I know this is a bit more mellow and way more country than I usually go. But Bill contacted me and I happened to like the vibe of the song that I picked. It wasn’t Bill’s recommendation, but hey, I’m a wacky guy sometimes.
I’ve seen a movie called, oh what’s it’s name, it’s some movie from the 70’s. Ugh. Uh, oh. Smokey and the Bandit. A very mid-west full on 70’s type of movie. Smokey and the Bandit has a real country flair in terms of the music. At least it did to me when I rented it. Why did I rent it? I heard it was funny. Bill’s tune seems to remind me of the romantic section of that movie. But with a way more uptempo type of kick.
I suppose a good way to describe it is a country two step. Again, this blog is supposed to have some learning stretches to me. While I have never written a song like this, I can now appreciate those that do. Though I also tend not to use the word love in a song, this one works for me. It’s probably the phrasing and the highly positive message that it’s sending out. With all the mess of things going on with the economy right now, I imagine having a very positive message is a great thing right now.
Hopefully whomever you end up giving a little love too will reciprocate.
Need a two step upbeat love tune? Then go get it now!